Which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. Shivaji sent an ambassador to Bombay to negotiate an agreement with the English. 2. His chief motive was to secure English aid against the Siddis of Danda-Rajpuri. 3. He wanted a supply of grenades, mortars and other ammunition. Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a)1 only
- (b)1 and 3 only
- (c)2 and 3 only
- (d)1, 2 and 3
Correct — D, 1, 2 and 3. All three statements describe the same episode and all three hold. Shivaji did send an envoy to Bombay to treat with the English: the standard account records that in September 1671 he despatched an ambassador there, once again seeking war material. The purpose named in statement 2 is the purpose the sources give — the fight against Danda-Rajpuri, the mainland stronghold attached to the Siddi power whose island fortress at Janjira the Maratha navy had failed to dislodge. The Siddis were the one enemy Shivaji could not reduce, because Janjira sat in the sea and could be relieved from it, and English artillery and munitions were the obvious remedy for that particular problem. Statement 3 names what he asked for — grenades, mortars and other ammunition, precisely the siege stores a besieger of a coastal fort would want. The negotiation went nowhere, largely because the English kept pressing for compensation for Shivaji's earlier sack of their factory at Rajapur, and because they did not wish to arm him against a neighbour they preferred to keep in place.
- (a)1 only — Accepts the embassy but denies its purpose and its content. The sources give both — the target was Danda-Rajpuri and the request was for munitions.
- (b)1 and 3 only — Keeps the embassy and the shopping list but drops the reason for both. The Siddi power at Janjira and Danda-Rajpuri is exactly what the ordnance was wanted for.
- (c)2 and 3 only — Retains the motive and the material but rejects the embassy itself, which is the best-attested part of the episode.
Shivaji's state had a coastline, and a coastline meant contending with three sea powers at once — the Portuguese at Goa and the northern Konkan, the English at Bombay and Surat, and the Siddis of Janjira, an Abyssinian-descended dynasty holding an island fortress with Mughal backing. He built a navy and a chain of sea forts to answer them, and where force would not serve he negotiated, playing one European power against another for guns, gunners and munitions.
A statements item where every statement is true is unusual enough to make candidates suspicious, and suspicion is the trap here. The way to settle it is to ask whether the three claims hang together as one story, because a fabricated statement usually sits awkwardly against the others. Here they interlock: the destination is the English port, the enemy is the one enemy that could not be taken without heavy ordnance, and the request is for exactly that ordnance. On sourcing, the embassy of September 1671 seeking material for the fight against Danda-Rajpuri is well attested; the particular list of grenades and mortars comes from the English factory correspondence that the paper's third statement draws on, and the key accepts it.
- In September 1671 Shivaji sent an ambassador to Bombay seeking war material for the campaign against Danda-Rajpuri.
- Danda-Rajpuri was the mainland seat associated with the Siddi power whose island fortress was Janjira, on the Konkan coast.
- The Maratha navy skirmished with the Siddis of Janjira but could not dislodge them.
- English willingness to supply Shivaji was soured by their demand for compensation for his earlier plunder of the factory at Rajapur.
- The Siddis held Janjira against the Marathas throughout, and it remained unconquered by them.
- Rejecting an all-three option on principle. Examiners occasionally do make every statement true.
- Confusing Danda-Rajpuri, the mainland seat, with Janjira, the island fort — they belong to the same Siddi power.
- Assuming the English supplied what was asked for. The negotiation failed over the Rajapur compensation and over their own interests.
As a statements item on Shivaji's dealings with a European power, or as a single question on which power held Janjira.
The member of Shivaji’s Astha Pradhana who looked after foreign affairs was
- (a) Peshwa
- (b) Sachiv
- (c) Pandit Rao
- (d) Sumant
Answer(d) Sumant
The office through which embassies of exactly this kind were run. The Sumant, or Dabir, held the diplomacy portfolio in Shivaji's council of eight, which is the institutional side of the mission to Bombay described here.
CDS_GK_2023_I_Q792023The First Anglo-Maratha War was concluded by which one of the following?
- (a) The Treaty of Surat
- (b) The Treaty of Purandar
- (c) The Convention of Wadgaon
- (d) The Treaty of Salbai
Answer(d) The Treaty of Salbai
The same relationship a century on. Where Shivaji approached the English at Bombay as a possible supplier, their successors met the Marathas as open belligerents — a useful way to see how Anglo-Maratha dealings changed.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The island fortress of Janjira on the Konkan coast was held against Shivaji by which power?
- (a)The Portuguese
- (b)The Siddis
- (c)The English East India Company
- (d)The Dutch
Answer(b) The Siddis — an Abyssinian-descended dynasty with Mughal backing, whose fort the Maratha navy could not take.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which grievance most soured English willingness to supply arms to Shivaji in the 1670s?
- (a)His alliance with the Portuguese at Goa
- (b)His demand for a share of Bombay's customs revenue
- (c)Their claim for compensation for the plunder of their factory at Rajapur
- (d)His refusal to allow English ships into Maratha ports
Answer(c) Their claim for compensation for the plunder of their factory at Rajapur — a debt that stood unsettled through the negotiations.